Picking Up the Pieces
by Hyrina
Summary: This story has OC's only so far, but I plan on bringing in FF7/Dirge of Cerberus/Crisis Core/Advent Children characters soon / eventually. Two girls struggle to survive in a world post Meteorfall...


Author's Note: Okay, first of all, this is entirely about OC's (original characters) so if you don't like OC's back away slowly... Then turn and run very very fast. If you don't mind, then keep reading. This is a back story fic I did for a couple of my characters in a Final Fantasy RP group that I own. These are my main OC's from that same game... But this wasn't a post there, just a work of fiction I threw together last year (2007-ish) because I felt like it. It was merely a supplement that anyone could read if they wanted. I didn't change any of the events in the game, knowingly, at least.

I don't own Final Fantasy and I don't want to own Final Fantasy. This is merely a work of fanfiction. I do own Hyrina and Savannah.

--

I remember it like it was yesterday... Meteor was falling over Midgar. At the time, I was in Kalm, watching, horrified, from the street. People crowded around near me. To them, we were all equal at that moment. No person was more afraid than the next person. And I thought... Yeah... this is what it's like to be a part of society. I felt a slight tug at my shirt and peered back. Ah, the kid. I say that, and I laugh. Because she's only two years younger than I am. Savannah. That cheery little orphan girl. I found her when she was thirteen. She's fourteen now. Well, I only found her a little while ago. Her birthday was a few days ago. Yeah. Imagine having your birthday with Meteor in the sky. She's such a pretty kid, with her blue eyes and brown hair. She looks normal. Not like me. I think I'm different. I wanna say I'm not human. Wait. Don't overreact. I'm not another Sephiroth!

...Ah, Sephiroth... It's your fault that the world is ending. That's what I was thinking about too as I hugged Savannah closely. Little sister. I thought I knew Sephiroth before. Isn't that funny? It wasn't him. I finally realized that a little while ago. He was one of the many clones designed by Shinra, brainwashed to think that he was Sephiroth. Poor brother. And now, he's dead.

Speaking of Shinra... They got everything they deserved. Maybe they didn't get enough of it. Well. A long time ago, I can't remember when, I was taken to an underground research facility. I had some crap injected into me. Dunno what it is, but I think I'm fine. I hope I'm fine. I mean, I don't really have anyone to check me out to make sure I am. Every time I think I want to go to a doctor and get myself checked out, I back off.

It's not that I don't have the money for it... I sold a Master All Materia. Boy am I lucky! Except that the world was coming to an end, that is. But we all know what /really/ happened that fateful day... The Planet rose up against it's enemy and smote it. Verily! ...Okay, so that was a little dumb. My bad. Anyway, I guess that's how it all began...

End Monologue.

--

A year after Meteorfall. Edge City. A young woman with curly... was that blue hair? Was walking out of a shop. She peered up toward the sky. It was going to rain. Well, that's alright. She liked the rain. It was good for Gaia. Maybe eventually it would wash away all the muck of the past few years. Just as her feet hit pavement it came. Thunder rolling across the sky. Goose bumps rose on her arms and she took a deep breath, and then peered at the sky with her dark green eyes. "Ahhhh!" She exclaimed, making a few people milling about pause and look at her, and then just like that, they went on their merry way.

She walked for quite a while with her package carefully held against her. She walked through the streets for some time until she came to the city limits. There, a male chocobo was waiting for her. He cooed as she got near, and she fed him a Tantal Green. "Good Boko." She said soothingly. "Well, off to home we go." The young woman mounted the bird and tucked the parcel close to her so that it wouldn't fall during the ride home. It would be a few hours to get from point A to point B even on a chocobo. She pulled the dark green cloak she was wearing closer, over the package so that it wouldn't get wet. And she was off. Boko wasn't fast like a black or a gold chocobo would have been, and he couldn't walk on water or climb mountains. But he was a hardy chocobo, and good breeding stock.

Sure enough, it had started to rain as they made their way past Kalm. Healin was the next town passed. The chocobo kept a steady pace. Yeah, that was another good attribute. He had excellent stamina. They traveled through the valley in between the two mountain ranges until finally they came to a stop in front of a little chocobo ranch, hugging the North side. No, it wasn't the chocobo ranch that Cloud and his party had used. This was a brand new one, run by the girl with the strange blue hair. She rode the chocobo into the barn and dismounted. Setting the package aside, she shuffled through the hay to a towel, which she began wiping the chocobo down with. The other birds were sleeping, their beaks tucked under a wing.

When she was finally sure Boko had been dried sufficiently, she gave him his greens, checked his water and meandered out of the barn toward the house, package tucked under her arm.

"Welcome home." The fifteen year old Savannah greeted the other girl at the back door, where she was taking off the soaked green cloak and ringing out her long hair.

"I really ought to cut this." She complained.

"Why? Oh Hyrina, it's perfectly nice hair." Savannah retorted.

Hyrina snorted. "Your hair's half the length of mine for the same reasons I want to /cut/ mine." She stuck her tongue out at her 'little sister'. "What's for dinner?"

"Ah tea and..." Savannah started. "We got some rice n' beans."

"Do I need to go food shopping again?" Hyrina asked, walking inside off the enclosed back porch after she had rid herself of her soaking wet shoes.

"Prolly." The girl said. "You know, you don't have to make all those trips to Edge City anymore. There's this delivery service..."

"That'd cost me an arm and a leg. Don't forget, raising chocobos is expensive enough. 'Sides, we're raising them for the specific /reason/ that they're supposed to be replacing all those old Mako vehicles." Hyrina lectured.

"But it'd save you a lot of time..." Savannah said.

"What, we got something better to do with our time?" Hyrina shot right back. "A nice ride is good for the soul, kiddo! What, you don't enjoy chocobo riding?"

"I miss the old days." Savannah said.

"Well, no use living in the past. If you mope about it, you'll never live in the moment. Where you /should/ be living." Hyrina paused. "Sure the old days were more convenient, but the new days are healthier. I bet you'll live twenty years longer than you would have if Shinra was still around!"

"I guess..." Savannah said, leaning against a counter and crossing her arms over her chest.

"You know..." Hyrina said, looking in the fridge, which was just an old fashioned ice box. Thankfully, Hyrina could get all the ice she needed on her own. "Monsters are a result of Mako Reactors..."

"Mm... Yeah, I know. /They/ told me that once." Savannah said.

Hyrina pulled out some plain cooked beans and plopped them into a pan to heat, then reached for a second pan, which she threw rice into and started to cook that as the beans sat on low. She was silent as she thought about Savannah's story. Running away from home at the age of twelve was pretty brave, especially in Midgar, even if it /was/ the top plate. She had been the adopted daughter of Shinra workers. Rich aristocratic money grubbing Shinra filth. Most teens didn't think their parents loved them, but Hyrina thought that this seemed actually to be true in Savannah's case. It seemed like they had adopted her to gain brownie points somewhere along the line. She thought it best not to answer, so she made a small grunting noise to let the girl know she was listening.

"When will the monsters go away?" Savannah asked.

"There's no telling..." Hyrina said. "They're capable of breeding... So they may be around for good. Once created, it seems they were nigh impossible to dispose of..." She set the teapot on to boil and pulled out two coffee cups, setting them on the counter, each with a teabag in them.

"You talk funny." Savannah said.

"Sometimes, yeah." Hyrina gave a laugh. And then she shrugged. "You're not used to it by now?"

"If you don't get out of those wet clothes, you're gonna catch a cold!" Savannah said in response.

"Ah... Okay. Well then, can you finish dinner? I'll go take a hot soak."

"Oh. Sure." Savannah said, looking at the unopened box and then at the stove. "Seeya in a little bit, then."

--

While Hyrina was bathing, Savannah walked over to the package. She didn't know what was in it, but she was curious. She paced back and forth in front of it until she opened it a little bit to peek in...

"Curiosity killed the cat, sis."

"Ah!" Savannah jumped back and then scratched at the back of her head a little, nervously. "Sorry!"

"Ah kids, can't live with 'em, can't kill 'em." Hyrina said.

"You're only two years older than me, dude."

"Dudette." Hyrina corrected. "But if you're in such a hurry, I'll show you now instead of after dinner." Hyrina walked over to the package and pulled at one of the loose ends of the string that had tied it together. It came apart and the paper folded back. Inside was a box, which Hyrina opened up. Inside, a cake that said "Happy Birthday, Sis!"

"Oh... Oh Hyrina..." Savannah said. "You remembered!"

"What, and I forgot last year?" Hyrina asked sarcastically in a joking tone.

"I love you!" Savannah hugged at the elder girl.

"Aw. I love you too..." Hyrina patted at the back of her head gently.

--

"Why do you handle the baby chocobos like that?" Savannah asked as she looked to Hyrina, who was snuggling with a baby gold chocobo. Hyrina was sitting with her back to one of the stalls with the bird on her lap and she was rubbing cheeks with it.

"It's called imprinting." Hyrina said. "Get it used to err... humans... and it's a lot less likely to be wild."

The gold chocobo let out a little shriek at Hyrina's attention being elsewhere and head butted her chest.

"Alright, you little spaz." Hyrina paused. "Hey yeah, I'm gonna call you Spaz."

Savannah let out a snort as Hyrina went back to rubbing cheeks with the little newborn bird.

--

"I don't understand why you're selling him." Savannah said, leaning against the doorframe in the barn. She was now just sixteen, Hyrina had turned eighteen months ago.

"Yeah..." Hyrina said. "It's hard for you, I know. But it's hard for me too." Hyrina was grooming the gold, now adolescent chocobo. "I didn't raise him to give him away, but we can't afford to pay off the incubators without this money."

"I think he's a crook." Savannah stated.

"I..." Hyrina trailed off. "Spaz is going to be well taken care of in the chocobo racing circuit. He wouldn't be abused; he's too valuable as one of the few gold chocobos on this entire godforsaken planet."

"And when he gets injured or too old...?" Savannah challenged.

"Leave that to me, I'll think of something." Hyrina assured.

"I'd rather you didn't sell him at all."

"Shut up, will you?!" Hyrina turned on Savannah. "You think this shit's easy for me, huh?!"

Several tense moments passed between the two then and Hyrina sighed.

"I'm sorry. Look, sometimes in life you don't have a choice. At all."

"Yeah... I guess you're right. I'm sorry. I'm just worried." Savannah said.

"Hey. You were an adult way sooner than you ever needed to be." Hyrina frowned as she reached over; pushing the bangs out of the sixteen year old's face.

"Speak for yourself too." Savannah said with a sigh. "How did we end up like this?"

"Maybe it's the will of Gaia..." Hyrina mused. "Either way, I guess it's not fair. But just think; we're stronger than the rest for what we've been through."

--

That's how it always was. We were too old for the bodies we lived in. Gaia had created a lot of us like that in recent years. We can't totally blame Shinra Corporation. And hell, there were some good seeds in Shinra. Good seeds in a bad fruit salad, sure. But good seeds nonetheless.


End file.
